The disclosure that the US was willing to risk a military confrontation with its ally is yet another sign of the low trust between the US and Pakistan. Last week American officials said that the US opted not to tell Pakistan about the mission or Mr. bin Laden's whereabouts beforehand because it could not be sure that Pakistan would not leak the information.

“Some people may have assumed we could talk our way out of a jam, but given our difficult relationship with Pakistan right now, the president did not want to leave anything to chance,” a senior administration official told the Times. “He wanted extra forces if they were necessary.”

The Guardian reported yesterday that according to unnamed Pakistani and American officials, former Pakistani leader Pervez Musharraf and former US President George W. Bushsigned an agreement in 2001 that authorized a unilateral American operation to capture bin Laden, much like the one that actually happened – and that afterward, Pakistan would "vociferously protest the incursion."

However, US-Pakistan cooperation is so far continuing amid all the accusations. A US official told Reuters that it looks likely that Pakistan will give US intelligence officials access to bin Laden's three wives, who were taken into Pakistani custody following the raid. The US has also requested access to ISI officials to investigate potential links to Al Qaeda.